Free-floating lake weeds and duckweed are fast growing fresh water plants that are invasive to water ponds, lakes, a slow moving rivers. For example under ideal conditions, the surface area covered by duckweed can double in less than 2 days. As such it doesn't take long for free-floating lake weeds and duckweed to overrun a pond or small lake thereby creating an unattractive nuisance while also blocking off sunlight for competing water plants.
It has been recently widely recognized that duckweed may be used as a valuable high-protein food source such as feed for fish (carp), poultry (chickens, ducks), livestock (pigs), and humans since duckweed contains high levels of protein, fat, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Duckweed also contains higher amounts of essential amino acids than most plants.
The removal of duckweed and other free-floating lake weeds from a body of water traditionally is done by hand and involves the use of hand nets which are thrown out from a shoreline of the pond or lake and pulled back in, which is labor intensive. Another technique involves the use of a small pontoon like watercraft in which a user would navigate the watercraft around the pond or small lake to either collect duckweed or push the duckweed closer to shore and into a collection container. Although the use of such watercraft is more efficient than the use of nets for the removal of duckweed and other free-floating lake weeds, the process is also labor intensive as it requires constant and continuous user operation.
In view of the above there is a need for a machine that can cost effectively remove and collect duckweed and other free floating lake weeds from a body of water to not only clean up the body of water but also to harvest the duckweed for use as food source for animal fee and human consumption.